When cold cranking a vehicle engine, the inrush current as the vehicle battery is coupled to the starting motor can be very significant, in the neighborhood of 900-1000 amps. Such starting current can, under some conditions, drop the battery voltage sufficiently to reset electrical systems in the vehicle. This problem is particularly acute in Stop/Start vehicles, where the battery goes through significant cycling and is near the end of life, also in winter months where the starting current available from a cold battery is further reduced. Some efforts have been made to minimize these undesirable starting problems by, for example, pulse width modulating the current applied to the starting motor. Such an approach, however, potentially creates electromagnetic interference issues, which can interfere with electrical control circuits within the vehicle. Also, with some diode-driven techniques, accidentally coupling the battery in reverse polarity can short the circuitry, causing damage to the starting circuit. Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved starting system in which the current applied to a starting motor is controlled in an effective, reliable, and inexpensive manner, which does not overload a battery and allows appropriate synchronization of a starter pinion gear with the drive train ring gear to prevent milling and minimize noise, vibration, and harshness during the starting sequence.